Battle is on for Control of Michigan’s Marijuana Market

Nearly eight years after Michigan voters overwhelmingly concluded that marijuana should be available to patients whose doctors prescribe it, state lawmakers are finally addressing some of the most egregious defects in Michigan’s Medical Marihuana Act.

A package of bills that won lopsided approval in the state House of Representatives last week would establish a rational (if unnecessarily complicated) regulatory scheme for licensing growers, processors, retailers and even those who transport marijuana from one facility to another. The House-approved plan also imposes a 3% tax on retailers’ gross income and authorizes doctors to prescribe non-smokable forms of the drug that the Michigan Supreme Court says remain prohibited under the 2008 law.

But the new regulations, which are likely to come to a vote in the state Senate later this fall, are more than a belated fix for medical marijuana. They also reflects Lansing’s grudging acknowledgment that Michigan will soon join the growing list of states whose voters have decriminalized the recreational use of marijuana, and must start preparing now to manage the profound disruptions legalized pot will create here.